Cyprus will begin preliminary talks with the United Nations in mid-May on a new bid to reunite the divided island, Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis said today.
Greek Cypriots have played down expectations of any imminent resumption of the reunification talks abandoned last year after Greek Cypriots voted in a referendum to reject a UN power-sharing plan that was accepted by the Turkish Cypriots.
But Mr Molyviatis said on the sidelines of a meeting of east European countries in Bucharest that the Cypriots would begin contacts with the UN in "mid-May . . . in the next few days".
"There will be preliminary contacts between Nicosia and the United Nations to make sure that the first step won't be the last one," he said.
A UN spokesman in Nicosia said earlier that the Greek Cypriots were ready to start "exploratory talks".
But Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos has warned there was still a long way to go before a peace deal was possible.
The Greek Cypriots, recognised as governing the whole island, joined the European Union last year and Turkey's own hopes of joining the EU are at stake.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told reporters in Bucharest that his country backed new talks. "As you know Turkey has always said that the UN was the place to resolve the Cyprus issue," he said.
"There had been hesitance on the Greek Cypriot side and we hope that they will enter a positive process with this meeting and a solution considering both sides' rights and laws."
Turkey invaded Cyprus after a brief Greek Cypriot coup in 1974 engineered by the military then ruling Greece.